Psoriasis is a common chronic inflammatory dermatitis mediated by cytokines released by dendritic plasmacytoid cells in combination with Th1- and Th17-cells. This complex and multifactorial condition is ... [more ▼]

Psoriasis is a common chronic inflammatory dermatitis mediated by cytokines released by dendritic plasmacytoid cells in combination with Th1- and Th17-cells. This complex and multifactorial condition is commonly associated with some comorbidities. The complexity of a coordinated management of such intricated pathologies is obvious. It calls for the so-called medicine "centered around the patient" which tops off the evidence-based medicine. Vitamin D by its immunomodulatory effect on T helper cells exerts a therapeutic benefit on psoriasis and some of its comorbidities including the metabolic syndrome. A vitamin D oral treatment was proposed in order to reduce the cardiovascular risk, and the ensuing morbidity and mortality. [less ▲]

PURPOSE: Retrospective studies have shown similar survival among patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplasia (MDS) after nonmyeloablative compared with myeloablative conditioning. Refined risk stratification is required to design prospective trials. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We stratified outcomes among patients with AML (n = 391) or MDS (n = 186) who received either nonmyeloablative (n = 125) or myeloablative (n = 452) allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) based on comorbidities, as assessed by a HCT-specific comorbidity index (HCT-CI), as well as disease status. Patients receiving nonmyeloablative conditioning were older, more frequently pretreated, more often received unrelated grafts, and more often had HCT-CI scores of 3 compared with patients who received myeloablative conditioning. RESULTS: Patients with HCT-CI scores of 0 to 2 and either low or high disease risks had probabilities of overall survival at 2 years of 70% and 57% after nonmyeloablative conditioning compared with 78% and 50% after myeloablative conditioning, respectively. Patients with HCT-CI scores of 3 and either low or high disease risks had probabilities of overall survival of 41% and 29% with nonmyeloablative conditioning compared with 45% and 24% with myeloablative regimens, respectively. After adjusting for pretransplantation differences, stratified outcomes were not significantly different among patients receiving nonmyeloablative compared with myeloablative conditioning, with the exception of lessened nonrelapse mortality (hazard ratio, 0.50; P = .05) in the highest risk group. CONCLUSION: Patients with low comorbidity scores could be candidates for prospective randomized trials comparing nonmyeloablative and myeloablative conditioning regardless of disease status. Additional data are required for patients with low-risk diseases and high comorbidity scores. Novel antitumor agents combined with nonmyeloablative HCT should be explored among patients with high comorbidity scores and advanced disease. [less ▲]

In the context of an ESA-funded study on an air separation device intended to provide in-flight Oxygen Collection capability to future launchers, experimental and system level investigations are performed ... [more ▼]

In the context of an ESA-funded study on an air separation device intended to provide in-flight Oxygen Collection capability to future launchers, experimental and system level investigations are performed. The project consortium is run by the Université Libre de Bruxelles and includes the Belgian Defence, Techspace Aero (Safran Group) and Liège university among others. In-flight Oxygen Collection has already been described in previous publications, mainly as a conceptual approach. The improvement potentials have been studied and possible uses of the technology go beyond the concept presented here. That is in the aerospace field and also outside, in a much wider range of applications. Hardware work on compact separation are seldom described. As the setup was nearing completion, design know how improved. The last problems were solved and the setup was made fully operational and subject to testing. The following review summarizes the work with latest information on the technological and experimental aspects. In the vehicles using air separation and collection, the cooling capacity of the fuel, liquid hydrogen, is used during a first air breathing phase of the flight to enrich in oxygen and liquefy a fraction of the incoming air. Compact and light weight heat exchanger, coupled to the separator, perform that task. The main advantages of the concept, applied in our preferred concept to TSTO’s, are a much reduced take off mass, a reduced mass for the liquid rocket engines and a much increased operational flexibility in terms of reachable orbit and launch window. Moreover, unlike scramjet propulsion, separation does not rely on high technology material but on readily available material and hardware used with proper design know how and appropriate expertise. The experimental setup development follows a somewhat different route. Liquid and saturated gaseous air are prepared in special heat exchangers before the separator can be fed, the cold source used being liquid nitrogen. The experimental separator itself is, in reality, a 'section' of a real separator. Disposing of the fluids in this machine deserves special care, since pressure has to be controlled while a liquid seal has to be kept stable in most of the operating conditions. Some workarounds had to be developed for that last problem and different solutions were kept available during the testing. Separating is an aspect, interactively measuring -required to tune to proper performance- is another. The operating fluids, that are supposed to be liquid or gaseous in the simple modeling, are in practice often two phase, which is difficult to asses during test and which can strongly impact flow and concentration measurements. High temperature gradients, low temperatures had to be considered for mechanical, sealing and bearing design, nevertheless, strong uncertainty remained before separation results are presented and demonstrate the concept. Most result went above expectations and much further compactification potentials are present. The know how gathered from testing experience allows to foresee improvement directions, both in the global concept and the detail design of a real unit. Those results will allow to extrapolate the real potentials of the separator design developed by our laboratory to the bigger units required for a real concept. [less ▲]

A compact, fully integrated, and automated system is developed for end-to-end production, purification, and formulation of the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) lidocaine hydrochloride, a widely used ... [more ▼]

A compact, fully integrated, and automated system is developed for end-to-end production, purification, and formulation of the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) lidocaine hydrochloride, a widely used local anesthetic. The purification strategy includes appropriate combination of extraction, reactive crystallization, and antisolvent cooling crystallization that enables the production of lidocaine hydrochloride formulated solution, for topical application meeting US Pharmacopeia (USP) standards. Based on the optimal yield observed in each step, the system sustains a daily production of 810 doses (dosage strength = 20 mg mL-1 i.e. 2% formulation in commercial denomination). [less ▲]

A pathway to the formation of planetesimals, and eventually giant planets, may occur in concentrations of dust grains trapped in pressure maxima. Dramatic crescent-shaped dust concentrations have been ... [more ▼]

A pathway to the formation of planetesimals, and eventually giant planets, may occur in concentrations of dust grains trapped in pressure maxima. Dramatic crescent-shaped dust concentrations have been seen in recent radio images at submillimeter wavelengths. These disk asymmetries could represent the initial phases of planet formation in the dust trap scenario, provided that grain sizes are spatially segregated. A testable prediction of azimuthal dust trapping is that progressively larger grains should be more sharply confined and should follow a distribution that is markedly different from the gas. However, gas tracers such as 12CO and the infrared emission from small grains are both very optically thick where the submillimeter continuum originates, so previous observations have been unable to test the trapping predictions or to identify compact concentrations of larger grains required for planet formation by core accretion. Here we report multifrequency observations of HD 142527, from 34 to 700 GHz, that reveal a compact concentration of grains approaching centimeter sizes, with a few Earth masses, embedded in a large-scale crescent of smaller, submillimeter-sized particles. The emission peaks at wavelengths shorter than ∼1 mm are optically thick and trace the temperature structure resulting from shadows cast by the inner regions. Given this temperature structure, we infer that the largest dust grains are concentrated in the 34 GHz clump. We conclude that dust trapping is efficient enough for grains observable at centimeter wavelengths to lead to compact concentrations. [less ▲]

In this paper, we present an original concept of plasmonic-related instrumentation platform dedicated to diagnostic biosensing tests out of the laboratory. The developed instrumental platform includes ... [more ▼]

In this paper, we present an original concept of plasmonic-related instrumentation platform dedicated to diagnostic biosensing tests out of the laboratory. The developed instrumental platform includes both disposable one-use microfluidic affinity biochip and compact optical readout device for biochip monitoring involving mobile Internet devices for data processing and communication. The biochip includes both microfluidic and optical coupling structures formed into a single plastic slab. The microfluidic path of the biochip operates in passive capillary pumping mode. In the proof-of-concept prototype, we address specifically the sensing format involving Surface Plasmon Resonance phenomenon. The biochip is plugged in the readout device without the use of an index matching fluid. An essential advantage of the developed biochip is that its implementation involves conventional hot embossing and thin film deposition process, perfectly suited for mass production of low-cost microfluidic biochip for biochemical applications. [less ▲]

A compact holographic interferometer that uses a photorefractive crystal of the sillenite family as holographic recording medium is presented. It was developed to provide high accuracy displacement ... [more ▼]

A compact holographic interferometer that uses a photorefractive crystal of the sillenite family as holographic recording medium is presented. It was developed to provide high accuracy displacement measurements of scattering objects, together with a high degree of flexibility, portability and versatility in function of the application. We briefly discuss the main technical aspects leading to a compact device. We present a couple of recent applications, among which the coefficient of thermal expansion of composite structures is measured, piezosheets calibration and fingerprint detection. [less ▲]